We have reported on the case of Jamshid Muhtorov for several years, click here for background. The other Uzbek jihadist making the news lately is Fazliddin Kurbanov.
Yesterday a judge in Colorado sentenced Muhtorov to 11 years for conspiring to aid a terrorist group in Uzbekistan. The AP story is entitled:
Uzbek refugee given 11 years for supporting terror group
What is so noteworthy about that headline?
The fact that the word refugee is used. Back in the day (LOL! when I first started writing this blog!), the headline would have read “Colorado man given 11 years for supporting terror group.”
The article would have then given only his name leaving you wondering where he came from and how he got here!
Little by little the times are changing and refugees who commit crimes are being identified.
Here is a bit of the AP story. Emphasis is mine.
Remember that the government of Uzbekistan (described here as “totalitarian”) is a Muslim government and not radical enough for Muhtorov and his pals.
DENVER (AP) — A refugee from Uzbekistan convicted of conspiring to support a terrorist group and making plans to join the organization himself in 2012 was given an 11-year prison sentence Thursday but will receive credit for the more than six years he has been jailed in Colorado.
A jury in June found Jamshid Muhtorov guilty of three charges: Conspiring to provide $300 to the Islamic Jihad Union, providing or attempting to provide the $300 and providing or attempting to provide himself as support. The organization is an extremist splinter group that opposes the government of Uzbekistan and has been blamed for attacks there and in Afghanistan.
Judge John Kane in his sentence wrote that Muhtorov’s “offenses are serious and his rhetoric is frightening” but did not include committing or planning violent acts in the United States.
Muhtorov’s offenses did not warrant the 30-year sentence required by prosecutors but demanded punishment beyond the six years and seven months he has been jailed since federal authorities arrested him at a Chicago airport, Kane said.
“Muhtorov attempted to travel to join and to provide financial support to a terrorist organization,” Kane wrote. “Regardless of whether his contribution aided orphans or whether he was limited to engaging in propaganda and recruiting, he would have furthered the illicit causes of a violent organization.”
[….]
Muhtorov and his family arrived in Denver in 2007 through a refugee resettlement program. [Can’t blame this one on Obama, he was a Bush refugee.—ed] The family fled their home country of Uzbekistan, where Muhtorov had been beaten twice for his human rights work. [Or was he beaten because he was working against the more moderate Islamic government there?—ed]
But, aren’t we told that they are all here for a better life?
Prosecutors argued that he soon became frustrated and angry about life in the U.S. and emailed with the terror group, used codes to discuss the group with a co-defendant and intended to join them when he booked a one-way ticket to Turkey in 2012. Muhtorov’s defense attorneys, though, said he never intended to take any action — either sending money or joining the group himself.
Prosecutors asked Kane to sentence the 42-year-old to 30 years in prison because he acted as a conduit between the group and other people, actively helping the organization.
Prosecutor Gregory Holloway suggested that a lighter sentence would fail to deter others from communicating with terror groups, including those that try to persuade people already living in the U.S. to plan and carry out attacks on Americans.
Fraud alert!
Now get this! If Muhtorov was a legitimate refugee fearing persecution if returned home, why was he going there anyway? And, more importantly I sure hope the prosecutors set the court’s mind right on how refugees are chosen for America….
Someone here as a legitimate refugee does not go home to help someone else get here!
AP continues:
He [Muhtorov’s attorney] said Muhtorov booked the plane ticket intending to help his brother apply for refugee status, not to join the group himself.
What no deportation! A Muslim who is “angry about life in the US” could be out of prison in about five more years?
Once Muhtorov is released, he will be transferred to immigration authorities, who requested a hold based on the Colorado conviction.
Muhtorov fears he will be jailed or killed if he is deported to Uzbekistan and U.S. proceedings to address those issues could last years, his attorneys said. [Costing the taxpayers a bundle!—ed]
What the heck, he was willingly headed ‘home’ a few years ago! But, will be fighting to stay here in only a few short years!
Go here for my growing Uzbek file.